Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Child health officials urge data sharing to protect abandoned kids.
- Georgia Supreme Court sides with the state in a contract dispute.
- Lisa Cook keeps her spot as a Federal Reserve governor for now.
In solidarity
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country stopped getting paid on Wednesday when the government shut down through no fault of their own. But the employees directly responsible for the funding lapse — members of Congress — will continue drawing their $174,000 annual salaries.
Amid that ironic injustice is an obvious opportunity for some of the leading contenders for Georgia’s U.S. Senate race. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, and Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff both voluntarily gave up their paychecks on Wednesday.
“Members of Congress shouldn’t be paid during a Schumer Shutdown,” Carter, R-St. Simons Island, wrote on X. “I’m foregoing my pay until an appropriations agreement is enacted.”
Most federal workers’ salaries must be approved by Congress every year, which is why their paychecks stopped when federal funding lapsed at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday. But the salaries for members of Congress come from permanent appropriations that don’t have to be renewed each year.
Credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Carter also challenged both of Georgia’s Democratic U.S. senators to do the same, saying they “shoulder the blame for this shutdown.” But he didn’t issue that challenge to fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Jackson, who like Carter is also seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate next year.
Collins hasn’t said if he’ll be giving up his paycheck.
The decision is easier for Carter, who is independently wealthy and has been relying on his personal fortune to fund his Senate campaign. A spokesperson for Carter said when the government reopens he will donate any money he made during the shutdown period to charity.
Former football coach Derek Dooley, also a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, doesn’t have to make that decision, as he’s not a member of Congress. Dooley called the government shutdown “D.C. politics at its worst,” blaming Democrats for the funding lapse.
“These politicians in D.C. aren’t allowed to use the government shutdown as a way to ‘get what I want.’ It’s like a kid would do,” he said. “So if you want to change behavior in D.C., let’s start sending some people up there who want that behavior changed.”
Things to know
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
Good morning! It’s day two of the federal government shutdown. Georgia’s ports, both by air and by sea, are open. But some National Park Service sites have closed, including the gravesite for the late President Jimmy Carter on what would have been his 101st birthday.
Here are three things to know for today:
- More than 100 pages of internal communications show how Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration responded to a federal immigration raid at the Hyundai Metaplant campus in southeast Georgia, Greg Bluestein reports.
- The federal government is detaining immigrants in downtown Atlanta, exposing them to conditions that fail to meet government standards for safety, hygiene and access to legal resources, the AJC’s Lautaro Grinspan and Stephanie Lamm report.
- Five Georgia colleges were recent targets of hoax 911 calls claiming a shooter was on campus, frustrating school officials, the AJC’s Jason Armesto reports.
Work continues
Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Lots of federal agencies are working with skeleton crews during the government shutdown. But for the bulk of employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration — both headed by Georgians — it’s mostly business as usual.
Over at the VA, which is run by former Georgia U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, the salaries of more than 90% of its workers come from things other than annual appropriations. That includes “advanced appropriations” — money the department is allowed to spend in the new fiscal year because it has already been approved by Congress.
Likewise, more than 75% of the workforce at the Small Business Administration — run by former Georgia U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler — gets paid by something other than annual appropriations.
But that hasn’t stopped Collins and Loeffler’s agencies from adopting a pessimistic posture about the crisis.
SBA spokesperson Maggie Clemmons noted that the agency’s core activities, including its signature loan programs, are frozen. That means about 320 small businesses won’t have access to $170 million in guaranteed funding “each day Senate Democrats continue to block a clean funding bill.”
Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz blamed “radical liberals in Congress” for shutting down the government, which stopped veterans’ services like career counseling, regional benefits offices and permanent headstone placement at national cemeteries. VA health benefits will continue as normal.
Data sharing
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Georgia has an alarming number of abandoned children suffering from various mental and behavioral health problems. Now, one of the state’s leading health care providers said one way to combat that is to force hospitals to talk to one another.
“It’s very difficult to be able to track and follow what is going on in the lives of children who are abandoned,” said Dr. John Costantino, chief of behavioral and mental health at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “We’re all flying blind.”
Costantino said hospitals don’t share data with one another in real time in a way that they can understand what is happening with these children. They don’t know what treatment they have had or whether it worked.
Costantino’s staff offered a recent example. Last week, a 14-year-old girl came to the emergency department after trying to kill herself. The hospital knew her because they had seen her five times before. But the girl had also been to at least 12 other hospitals this year.
“I think we can do it. The technology exists to do it. It requires will to do it,” Costantino told Georgia lawmakers during a meeting of the House Study Committee on Abandoned Child Placement Following Hospital Discharge.
Committee Chair Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, said she thought the recommendation “was spot on.”
Win and lose
The Georgia Supreme Court said it’s OK for three technology companies to sue the state. But it didn’t say anything about winning.
The three companies — Dovetel Communications, Truvista Communications of Georgia and Parker Fibernet — all paid Georgia an annual fee to install broadband internet equipment along public rights of way.
In 2021, the state Department of Transportation raised the fee. The companies sued, arguing they had a contract and the state couldn’t just cancel it whenever it felt like it.
The department argued that it could not be sued because the state Constitution gave it “sovereign immunity.” The Supreme Court rejected that argument.
But the court also ruled the state can end this contract at any time. That’s because the contract did not specify an end date, and Georgia law says that makes them “terminable at will by either party.”
Listen up
Credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Today on the "Politically Georgia" podcast U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock joins the show to talk about the impact of the federal government shutdown on Georgians. Then Tia Mitchell reports on the Congressional Black Caucus conference.
You can listen and subscribe to Politically Georgia for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have you been impacted by the federal government shutdown? We want to hear from you. Give us a call at 770-810-5297 or email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com
Cook stays
Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Georgia native Lisa Cook will keep her spot on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors while a lawsuit over whether President Donald Trump can fire her plays out in court.
Trump tried to force out Cook in August, accusing her of mortgage fraud by listing an Atlanta condo she owns as her permanent residence to lower her taxes.
Cook has denied the allegations, and other documents produced in court have shown she listed the condo as a vacation home.
Trump fired Cook in August. Cook sued and a federal judge ruled she could not be removed. An appeals court chose not to overturn that decision.
The case is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear arguments in January.
The decision means Cook will attend the remaining two Fed meetings this year, including its interest rate-setting committee in late October. The fed voted to cut a key interest rate at a meeting last month
Today in Washington
- President Donald Trump will receive an intelligence briefing.
- The House is out this week.
- The Senate is taking the day off in observance of Yom Kippur.
Shoutouts
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
Today’s birthdays:
- U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Gov. Brian Kemp will give the keynote address during the opening ceremony of the Georgia National Fair in Perry. Kemp’s remarks will focus on America’s upcoming 250th birthday and highlight the fair’s role in promoting tourism.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
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